Loss and Damage under the UNFCCC: what relationship to the Hyogo Framework?

Report

Loss and Damage under the UNFCCC: what relationship to the Hyogo Framework?

A report prepared by Climate Analytics

Responsibility for addressing the impacts of humaninduced climate change and the source of financial support for addressing these impacts are two critical and deeply political issues. In late 2012, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)1 agreed to establish institutional arrangements, such as an international mechanism, to address loss and damage from the impacts of growing GHG concentrations. A decision on the form of these arrangements is expected in Warsaw, at the next Conference of the Parties in 2013. Discussions have also been initiated on whether the new 2015 agreement being negotiated under the UNFCCC should explicitly include an international mechanism to address loss and damage.

At the same time, discussions are underway at the international level on how climate change and climate-related risk should be referenced in the second phase of the Hyogo Framework for Action2, due to be agreed in 2015, as well as how disaster risk reduction and climate change should factor into post-2015 development goals.

This paper briefly highlights some of the significant and fundamental differences in objectives, terminology, approach, source of financing, legal nature and -- importantly -- responsibility under the UNFCCC and the Hyogo Framework. In view of these differences, the paper urges caution in reliance on HFA processes to address the range of concerns raised under the UNFCCC on loss and damage.